Beavan's Last Two Starts

High-A: Stockton 6, at Bakersfield 3
Loss: Beavan (0-3, 5.48)

Similar to Michael Main on Saturday, Blake Beavan zipped through five innings: one hit, runner promptly caught stealing, two strikeouts. He drove into a brick wall in the 6th, allowing six runs on five hits and a wild pitch (plus a Jonathan Greene error and a passed ball). Beavan departed after 5.1 innings with four earned runs on his ledger. Corey Young (1.2 IP), Zach Phillips (1 IP, 3 SO), and Evan Reed (1 IP, 1 SO) didn’t permit a hit for the remainder.

Engel Beltre (.184/.215/.289) socked his first homer and doubled in five at-bats. Joey Butler (.233/.258/.300) also homered for the first time, doubled and singled. Butler’s making slow bu t measurable progress. In his first 30 at-bats, he batted .200 with 16 strikeouts. In his most recent 30, he’s hitting .267 with only five whiffs.

High-A: at Visalia 5, Bakersfield 2

Loss: Beavan (0-2, 5.06)

Bakersfield is 248-325 as a Texas affiliate. It must be Texas’s designated locale for learning to deal with adversity. Despite consisting primarily of guys who were the class of the Midwest League for much of 2008, the Blaze fell to 3-10 with their 7th consecutive defeat.

Through four innings, starter Blake Beavan had been hittable but had largely matched Arizona’s top prospect Jarrod Parker. Down 2-1 in the 5th, Beavan walked consecutive batters, then allowed a homer by Sean Coughlin. Beavan departed after the 5th with five runs on his ledger along with eight hits, three walks and six strikeouts. In 25 previous professional starts, Blake had allowed five earned runs only once, had walked two batters in a inning only once, and had never walked two batters consecutively.

Home Plate